Exclusive: Interview with Joe Alread, SOE Designer
With the release of our latest spoiler, Kaladim Sergeant, we had an opportunity to chat with Joe Alread, designer at SOE, about past, current, and future releases in the Legends of Norrath series, including his own thoughts on the title. Here's how it went:
AutumnKiss: First off, thank you so much for taking time out to chat with us! To start with, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background, so that our readers can get to know you a little better?
Joe: Sure! My name is Joe Alread and I’ve been a designer at SOE Denver for almost 6 months now. Before coming to SOE I worked on a number of other MMOs and TCGs including the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings trading card games. I’ve been playing Legends of Norrath for quite awhile now and am delighted that I now have the opportunity to have an impact on its future.
AutumnKiss: With the Legends of Norrath, there is an immersive story being told here, spanning the sets and the lore behind both EverQuest and EverQuest II. How difficult is it to put this story into a TCG like this, and what has been your greatest challenge so far in this aspect?
Joe: The biggest challenge in my mind is maintaining a balance between both games, as we want to give both groups of players content to be excited about. At the same time though, having lore from both EverQuest and EverQuest II as a resource gives us an amazing amount of freedom in how we create our stories, and I think it really shows. In Oathbreaker for example you’ll find out that the Oathbound are not all that you think them to be. You must join the forsworn and convince other Oathbound to join your new plight.
AutumnKiss: With the release of Inquisitor, some in the community felt there was a weakening of certain classes in the cards. Can we expect to see the same here for more balance?
Joe: In Oathbreaker there are a number of new themes appearing that will give some new flavor to the different archetypes. For example Scouts now have beast masters and their warder pets, which are my personal favorite. The warder pets are very powerful in combat and as a result can be quite hard to kill! I don’t really feel that we’ve weakened any of the other archetypes at all though.
AutumnKiss: Considering that Legends of Norrath was announced not quite a year ago, and the fourth expansion is already upon us, how do you intend to keep up this pace of releases every couple of months, and how is the team working to keep the new cards fresh and unique?
Joe: After our 5th expansion, sets will be released every 4 months instead of every 3. Also, LoN has lots of unexplored areas of design for us to base cards around. For example, our new keyword in this set is called Charge and in summary, it grants (or takes away) abilities on cards over certain periods of time. It alone allows us to create all kinds of new cards and situations that weren’t possible before.
AutumnKiss: Just because this is a TCG, rather than a full MMO, this doesn't mean that there are no challenges. What do you believe has been your greatest challenge so far, and how did you overcome it?
Joe: Raids tend to be the biggest challenge to design because we want them to be difficult yet fun to play at the same time. As a result we tend to spend a lot of time play testing them and working to make sure that they are in the best shape they can be. The entire format is very unique to Legends of Norrath and we want players to enjoy raids and have them be a fun and social event.
AutumnKiss: What is your favorite archetype, and what makes it so special for you?
Joe: I am not really a “favorite archetype” guy but more of a “flavor of the month” guy. I’ll play whatever archetype I think gives me the best chance to win. Currently that is my Fighter/Guard of Piety deck. Last month it was Mages and Restless Bones.
AutumnKiss: Some of the digital art from Legends of Norrath was recently honored in EXPOSÉ 6. This is, of course, a great honor. To what, and/or whom, do you attribute this accomplishment, and do you believe this will have any impact on the expectations of the player community in terms of future expansions' look and feel?
Joe: It is an incredible honor and I think players will be even more amazed by the art upcoming in Oathbreaker. I think it’s some of our best overall art for an expansion so far. Our art team and illustrators are doing an incredible job, and I think it makes a statement as to what kind of quality players can expect when they open a Legends of Norrath booster pack.
AutumnKiss: Is there any one card which you believe to be the most creative/innovative in terms of design and/or concept, and why that particular one?
Joe: Tough call on this one. I’m going to have to go with a new Scout card coming out called Spirit of Wind. This card went through a lot of play testing as we tried to get it up to par with other tournament-viable strategies. Warder pets were cool but all it took for an opponent to stop the strategy cold was to play a single unit to block it and all of a sudden your entire strategy to deal damage to your opponent was put on hold for a turn. That led to Spirit of Wind actually bypassing opposing units and initiating combat with your warder against an opposing avatar. The card is really solid now, and we’re looking forward to seeing how players use it.
AutumnKiss: We've seen general creatures, and common foes appear in Legends of Norrath. Can we expect to see something new that can't be found in either EQ or EQII at any point in the future?
Joe: I can’t really promise anything except that as I state above, we have some freedom in creating story for Legends of Norrath and anything is possible!
AutumnKiss: Finally, even though we've been publishing some spoilers recently, can you share with us anything really exciting that we can look forward to with Oathbreaker?
Joe: The raid being released with Oathbreaker is centered around Chel’drak, the ancient protector. Don’t worry about your quest selection for this raid though, as you’ll be dealing with Chel’drak’s quests and his alone. This is the first time we’ve used only a Raid Boss’s quests for a raid and I think it’ll give players a fresh experience in terms of how his quests are setup and how they affect the raid as a whole.
AutumnKiss: Thank you again! We look forward to checking out Oathbreaker!
Joe: Anytime!
Maggie "AutumnKiss" Olsen
Senior Editor, ZAM Network